The greatest thing about getting older (I recently turned 33) is that you get wiser. Not in the sense of drinking less at parties - on this one, I remain steadily immature (my occasionally hungovered head can confirm) but getting to know yourself and life in general better. Along with that, knowing what are keepers and what is good to toss - whether it be clothes, books, but also relationships and information (which is the core of this post - FYI).

Speaking several languages and having inherited from my Grand'ma. I benefit from a pretty good memory (elephant-like kinda memory - my friends and family can confirm) which is obviously great. But as I get older, like everyone, I feel like needing to sort out the data I remember a little more cleverly rather than accumulate random things all the time.

And here is what is REALLY the core of this post: in term of data worth keeping or not, what should I do with login/username details and other passwords? From my prospective, this is useless data and I can recognize the pattern of too-fast growing technology: nobody had a f***ing plan so it has become a BIG MESS. Between user names you have to make up (and I belong to the group of people who always wonders whether my gamer's name is ok for work-related stuff), whether the website creates one automatically based off your contact information or if your email address is the one to go for - all of the above option or clues NEVER mentioned again when you try to log on again, as if remembering a password was not enough, make me go bananas...

In that particular aspect, Facebook has an interesting, yet tentacular approach by linking any new website you want to register with via its platform. Downside is obviously the data sharing it implies and how random ads will be poured down your newsfeed before you know it. This is without accounting for the ads published by websites your friend subscribed to - this is namely how I discovered 'undercover' that a lot of my French girlfriends seem to be all registered on a beauty product website that has clearly collected friend lists but did not pick up the current location. But I am getting side tracked here. The point I wanted to make is that should the registering process has not become such a pain, the 'via Facebook' feature would not have become that popular given how easily data can be shared. Besides, if your account gets hacked, then this tentacular networks websites you are registered in becomes equally weakened and ALL your data can become available to the entire planet in the blink of an eye. Meeeh.

Another interesting fact that shows the lesson is still to be learned: I work in a company that has developed and utilizes numerous online tools for its employees - overall great concept but guess what: at least 3 of those have different log in username requirements (all automatically generated so you have no choice but adhere to all of those or use sticky notes with all these information on display all around your monitor) - and obviously different frequency on renewing passwords, oh joy! Fun fact - a friend of mine works for a really cool tech company where for internal systems, no policy has ever been set up on what user names and passwords should be either while it is their core business. In other words, any engineer can decide on log in format as they please - and from what my friend told me, it does not seem that obvious to a senior software engineer what the most logical log in details should be. No comment.

Anyhow, the good news is - I live with a bad ass software engineer who feels my pain and prefers my brain to have storage to remember what his favorite beer is rather than log in and passwords. He introduced me to a program that stores ALL my details from log in to passwords into one place and even generates complex passwords when I run out of ideas (I do not advertise here but can give you the name of this program if you contact me privately). It took me a while to get my head around it and when logging on to a site from my phone, I am incapable of doing it (as I have no idea what the password is) but having now to remember ONLY my banking and email passwords (as that same engineer of mine told me that for security reasons, these are the only two that should stay in my head), I say: YEAH!!!!!

Although this program is obviously patching up for lack of policy or guidelines regarding log in and passwords systems. I also wonder if current training programs/university for computer science ever cover that topic for future engineers. If you have heard of anything, give me a shout as I would be happy to know what best practice should be and what can be expected and hoped for the future (this is where the title came from, yes).